Monthly Archives: April 2008

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Welcome Christina to the Cowbelly Family!

April 30, 2008 – 5:03 pm

I have been bugging my new assistant Christina for 3 weeks about her ‘interview’ I emailed her, and I am super excited that I got it back from her last night! Poor dear, she spend all day slogging away in the Cowbelly office, only to go home and slog some more in answering my interview questions.

Just one of the 10, 297 reasons why I love her.

Let me introduce Christina Ellis, new Cowbelly assistant extraordinaire.

1. Where were you born and raised?

I was born in North Vancouver, BC, Canada as were my brother and sister. We moved when I was eight, which I was very upset about, to Bainbridge Island, WA where my parents are still living.

2. When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Strangely enough, I wanted to be an orthodontist or a teacher, neither of which is on my horizon.

3. What is your favorite color?

I like deep eggplant-y purples and also dark greens.

4. What is your favorite time of day and why?

I like dawn and dusk for many reasons. The light at that time is gorgeous, especially through trees. It smells great in the morning especially if it just finished raining or there was a heavy dew. The birds are usually out and there are not a ton o people around so you can just enjoy a walk listening to your own foot steps.

5. If you could retire to anywhere in the world and money were no object, where would you retire to and why?

I cant really picture myself staying in one place for very long. If I were to retire and money were no object, I would probably end up spending TONS of money on audio recording equipment and setting up a studio in Seattle and maybe one in Chicago as well while at the same time playing music with my band full time and traveling around the country and the world playing music.

6. What is your favorite food?

Currently I love pizza with some sort of crumbly cheese like feta, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic and olive oil. I am also very happy with stir fried veggies and peanut sauce! mmmmmm

7. Why do you want to work for Cowbelly?

I love pets and I think Jamie is super talented. I like to try to work for local businesses because I feel that I am a valued member of the team instead of just a number.

8. If you could win an award for any real or imaginary talent, what would it be for?

What a strange question. It’s hard for me to think of winning awards… I think it would be awesome to win a triathlon or a bike race of some kind. I am completely out of shape right now but it would be awesome if it actually happened. :-)

This is Jamie speaking now. I honestly don’t know what I ever did without her. Christina is everything I could have ever dreamed of in an assistant and more. She seems to read my mind which is like the coolest thing ever. Plus, unlike mine, her memory rocks. She is also super techy-savvy, AND a longtime mac user, so is pleased as punch on my mac network (we now have 3 macs, including a new macbook pro laptop, whoopee!). Oh, and her email skills? Beyond compare. I am beyond happy that I got over my assistant fear and hired her! Just one more reason to love 2008!

Today we are spending the day hanging new art and photography displays. It should be a blast!

Yay for Christina!!

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Behind-the-Scenes | Tagged | Comments (0)

Saturday/Sunday in Seattle

April 27, 2008 – 4:54 am

Remember the weekend recently when it was 80 degrees and sunny on Saturday and 45 degrees, windy and pouring rain on Sunday? Yeah? So do I. I did the following shoot for Scout and Ziggy on Saturday and then did the shots of Fergie that follow on Sunday. Note the contrast between the groups of images.

Hot Scout at the Arboretum.



A dog uses it’s tongue to try and cool off. Not sure if it was helping poor Ziggy here.

This helped a little.

It’s not that it was super bloody hot, but in comparison to the previous weeks it felt like 100 degrees.



Ok, this is pretty much what we all felt like at that shoot.

Ahh shade, under a pretty pink tree.


My favorite shot from the shoot. Curly tongue! BTW: did you know that when a dog’s tongue curls up like this it means he/she is really, really hot? Yep! Kind of like a leaf in the sun.

Now, that was Saturday.

Ready for Sunday? Here ya go.

Fergie, Discovery Park. The intention was to get shots of her catching the disk, which was a gift from Fergie’s grandpa. He had been wanting to go to DP with us for months to document her skills. We planned for that Sunday and the weather couldn’t have been worse. It doesn’t look too awful in the photos, but after 20 minutes of shooting my hands were so cold I couldn’t feel them and I said “Ok, let’s go!”. And we left.


This is funny. It was raining so hard I had to put a plastic bag around my camera. it was a good thing that I did. By the time we got back to the car we were soaked.


This shoot was really hard for me. The weather made it tough (notice my bad color and focus issues), but what made it really hard is that I have never watched Fergie catch a disc with anyone else. I was so amazed at her anti-gravity skills I kept forgetting to push the shutter button on my camera. I kept going “wow Fergie, wow!”, then would snap the shot after she hit the ground, kind of as an afterthought. This next one I like, and I think speaks volumes about the athletic side of the Fergermeister’s personality.

Now, I have been wishing hard for Mother Nature to get back on my (Seattle’s) side. Today she was in cooperation which was great for my shoot for D’ogi the puppy, but tomorrow I’d like sun too because we will be going back to Discovery Park for more disc throwing.

If anyone reading this has any effective weather dances or can pull some strings with MN, please help us here in the Northwest!

Thank you.

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Behind-the-Scenes, Fergie, Private client shoots, seattle dog photography | Tagged | Comments (0)

Whisker City Sacred Cat Ball

April 24, 2008 – 5:51 pm

I just met with Kathryn, a lovely volunteer for a great local organization called Whisker City. She picked up a donation from me for their upcoming Sacred Cat Ball, their annual fundraiser that helps them raise much-needed funds to help them rescue and care for abused, neglected and abandoned cats and kittens.

Here is the blurb from their website:

Whisker City rescues and rehabilitates abused, neglected and abandoned cats and kittens, shelters them, and places them in loving homes. 

Help us save lives! Join our auction effort, enjoy a catered vegetarian dinner with special celebrity guests — see who’s coming…
To become a Table Captain where you can invite your friends to join you at your table, or to donate an item.

They contacted me many weeks ago about making a donation, and thankfully have been really great at staying on top of me during this craziness of work with my business.

It’s so important to me personally to be able to give back, and although it’s something I don’t talk about much on this blog, it’s not uncommon for me to donate a product or service as often as 8-10 times per year.

I very rarely turn an animal rescue organization down, and have only not donated when I have been so busy I miss the deadline for the procurement form. Oh, FYI: I ONLY donate to animal-related organizations that help rescue and care for needy animals.

Organizations I have donated to in the last 4-5 years include:

PAWS
Seattle/Bellevue Humane Society
Feral Cat Spay and Neuter Society
Northwest Animal Rights Network
Pasado’s Safe Haven (this was for last month’s bowling fundraiser)
Seattle Animal Shelter
Best Friends Animal Society
Prison Pet Partnership Program
and now
Whisker City 

I have a feeling there have been others but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

SO, what did I donate to the Sacred Cat Ball?

A gift certificate for a ‘Feature’ photo session: a 90-minute shoot + prints package that includes 4 8×10 prints (or $100 in print credit) a private online gallery and travel up to 40 miles from D/T Seattle. Value: $325.

The GC is going in their live auction, and they will have a powerpoint presentation that includes all of the items in the auction.

I am so excited to find out who wins this certificate! I imagine it will be a kitty since there will be so many cat lovers there. If you are a kitty owner in the Seattle area and have been wishing for a Cowbelly photo session for your furkids, this would be a great opportunity to pick one up while supporting a great organizaton at the same time.

There are some really amazing items in their auction, items I’d really like to win.

If you are a kitty lover and believe in supporting organizations that do very good things for very good (and needy) animals, please consider attending the event.
Details:

Auction Location: 

Everett Events Center – Edward D. Hansen Conference Center
2000 Hewitt Avenue – Everett, WA – 98201

June 7, 2008 – 5:00 pm

Whisker City website.

Lastly, my apologies for the total lack of photographs on my blog recently. I am still busy with my commercial project, but anticipate being done by this weekend. Also trying to catch up with regular Cowbelly work. Yesterday between Christina and I we sent over 50 emails! If you have yet to hear from us please don’t fear, I anticipate being (mostly) caught up with everyone by the end of the week.

I also have some new images to show, including some from a couple of shoots I did the weekend before the commercial shoot. Remember the week when it was 80 degrees and sunny one day and then 45 degrees, windy and pouring rain the next day? Yeah, that one. Should be an interesting contrast.

This weekend I am planning to hang a new (big) Decopaw art display in Seattle. I will give details on that once it’s up. This will be the biggest display I have ever hung, and in such a cool space. I’ll try and remember to take pictures. Very exciting stuff.

And then, once this week is over, I can focus on finishing my first of two very exciting projects. I am getting really excited to share it with my blog audience but still have a lot of work to do before it’s ready to launch. I am still planning on a May (mid-May?) launch date. Stay tuned for that! I will be sure to say “this is project #1″ when it launches. Did I mention I was excited? Lots of excitement lately! Yippee. :-)

Happy Thursday!

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Events | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Dog Park Wisdom book signings

April 23, 2008 – 5:00 pm

Some of you may have already heard about the talented Lisa Wogan’s new soon-to-be-released publication: Dog Park Wisdom. For those who haven’t, here is the little blurb on the book from the new website of the same name:

Dog Park Wisdom: Real-World Advice on Choosing, Caring For, and Understanding Your Canine Companion is a compendium of practical advice, homespun tips, and stories direct from the dog park for and about living with dogs. It’s a grassroots approach to pet care gleaned from everyday dog people. We didn’t seek out vets, trainers, behaviorists, or anyone else with advanced degrees or training in canine-ology. Not because they don’t provide excellent counsel but because they write their own books and, let’s face it, sometimes the best advice comes from a wise friend.

Lisa is a very talented writer and friend in the pet industry, and it will be my pleasure to attend one (or maybe both!) of her book signings. And as if Lisa’s great writing style isn’t enough, the very talented dog photographer and friend Bev Sparks did the photography for the book and will be joining Lisa in the signings of their book. That’s two different books for the gals in 6 months! Please join us for a fun party and what I am sure will be a very informative, eye-opening, interesting, funny read. Oh, and also, myself and Fergie are in the book, just one more reason to pick it up. :-)

Book signing dates + locations:

MUTTINI MIXER, SEATTLE, FRIDAY, MAY 2
A canine schmooze-fest at the Downtown Dog Lounge on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 2, from 7 to 10 p.m. Doga instructor and Dog Park Wisdom contributor Brenda Bryan will help us celebrate with free canine mini-massages in the first hour.

URBAN BEAST BOOK SIGNING, SEATTLE, THURSDAY, MAY 29
Can’t make the mixer? Never fear. We’ll be signing books and sipping wine at Urban Beast in the South Lake Union neighborhood from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 29.

Hope to see some of you there!

 

By doggirlseattle | Posted in Events | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
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